


somewhere to begin

by EchoBleu



Category: Shadowhunters (TV)
Genre: 1x07 Major Arcana, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Autistic Alec Lightwood, Basically just gratuitous whump, Blood, Coda, Hurt Alec Lightwood, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Pre-Relationship, Whump, demon venom, injuries
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-10
Updated: 2021-03-10
Packaged: 2021-03-17 06:35:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,066
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29962377
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EchoBleu/pseuds/EchoBleu
Summary: 1x07 canon divergence. After he stays behind to hold off the Shax demons and give Jace and Clary a chance to escape, Alec is badly injured. It's a race to get him back to the Institute and get the closest warlock to heal him. Said closest warlock happens to be the one he recently shared his strength with.
Relationships: Alec Lightwood & Jace Wayland, Magnus Bane & Alec Lightwood, Magnus Bane/Alec Lightwood
Comments: 22
Kudos: 86
Collections: Shadowhunters Fic Crawl 2021





	somewhere to begin

**Author's Note:**

> The bulk of this is actually one of the very first things I wrote for this fandom. I remember watching 1x07 and being frustrated that they set up things for a good Alec fight and/or whump by having him hold off the demons on his own, and _Clary_ ended up fighting the demons while Alec was somehow fine back at the Institute. Then I read the first TMI book and while it didn't hold my interest enough to continue, the scene of Alec getting injured and healed by Magnus (unfortunately off-screen) gave me ideas.
> 
> It sat in my WIP folder for months so I dusted it up and finished it for the Malec server Saint Patrick Fic-crawl event! It also fills the Hurt/Comfort square of my Shadowhunters Bingo.
> 
> Huge thanks to my amazing beta [JeanBoulet](https://archiveofourown.org/users/JeanBoulet/pseuds/JeanBoulet) who did a great work trimming this down to a reasonable word count and keeping me from adding more. I might write a little sequel/coda at some point later but this stands alone just fine.

Jace is almost back at the Institute when he feels it. It's not pain, not exactly. Parabatai wouldn't be much use in battle if they both went down every time one of them was injured. It's a specific kind of discomfort, though, that Jace has long learned to associate with Alec being hurt. He feels it often these days, like it's always there at the back of his mind, but this is an order of magnitude worse.

He left Alec alone to hold the demons back, but the demons they still found their way to him, Clary and Izzy − Jace should have known right away that it didn't bode well for Alec. Yet all he thought about was getting Clary and the cup to safety, not his parabatai, not his brother. What's wrong with him?

It's too late to reflect on this now. He needs to find Alec. Clary isn't back at the Institute yet, and neither is Izzy. They're all in danger, his siblings and the girl he's starting to care about too much. He has to do _something_.

The intensified discomfort says Alec is in serious trouble. If he's alone and injured among Shax demons, and maybe something much worse…

He runs back, retracing his steps into the tunnels. Where demons were everywhere before, things are now eerily quiet. His left side aches in places Jace knows his own body is fine. He stumbles multiple times as stabbing pains overtake him, and that means that Alec’s injuries are bad enough that his side of the bond is leaking. Jace is capable of blocking it, of saving himself from this pain, but hurting with Alec almost seems like a fitting punishment for leaving him behind.

His seraph blade is ready in his left hand, though, the other hand tracking his parabatai, resting over the rune. Every minute that passes, his worry eats at him, scenarios worse and worse coursing through his mind.

In the end, he's not even the one who finds Alec first. He comes to a screeching halt at a tunnel intersection, where his tracking leads him to Clary, a shell-shocked expression on her face, and Luke, who drags more than supports a barely conscious Alec. Jace doesn't have time to see more before Clary steps in front of them. “Where did we meet?” she asks coldly.

Jace blinks at her tone, until his brain processes her question. Right, shapeshifter demons. “Outside Pandemonium,” he answers. “You bumped into me. It's really me.”

Clary sighs in relief and jumps into his arms. Torn between comforting her − comforting himself, the part of him that is weak in the knees at the opportunity to embrace her − and panicking for Alec, Jace allows the hug to last a couple of seconds. “Alec?” he asks fearfully.

Alec moans, weakly moving. Luke’s grip is clearly the only thing holding him up. Jace slips an arm around Clary's waist and guides her closer without letting go. “A demon got him bad,” Luke says. “I've got the pack taking care of the others.”

Jace meets his eyes and nods. “We need to get him back to the Institute.” He fixes his eyes on Alec, taking in the blood − barely visible on his dark clothes in the dim light, but dripping from his exposed hand − the ruined jacket and pants, and more than anything, the pain in Alec's already feverish eyes as he struggles to focus on Jace.

“Jace,” he mutters, barely audible.

“I'm here, brother,” Jace lays a hand on his cheek, the only part of Alec he knows for sure isn't injured right now. “We'll get you home, okay?” He takes out his stele and starts drawing an iratze, but Luke shakes his head.

“The venom is already in his blood, and the wounds are too deep. It won't be enough.”

“It will be something,” Jace says through his teeth, quickly moving his hand. But Luke is right. The iratze lights up on Alec's skin but dims immediately. Alec closes his eyes. “Stay with me,” Jace murmurs, slipping Alec’s free arm around his own shoulders. Alec cries out when it pulls on his wounds. “We have to go.”

The walk back is a bit of a blur. They can't run without risking aggravating Alec's injuries, but Jace itches to go faster. Clary looks exhausted, worried, and he lets her lean against him on his other side, while holding up a barely responsive Alec. He feels useless. The worsening ache in his side isn't making it easier, but he still refuses to block it out entirely. Alec moans when he can't contain his pain, and each of the low sounds cut through Jace like a seraph blade.

“The infirmary,” he directs Luke. “We need−”

“Alec!” Izzy falls in step with them, trying to see her brother without slowing them down. “Is he−”

“What you need is a warlock,” Luke says. “He's alive,” he adds to Izzy. “For now.”

“Magnus Bane,” Clary says. “He'll help.”

“Call him!” Izzy tells her, directing Luke over to the medical table. They don't have a proper field medic in the Institute at the moment, let alone a doctor, so Izzy with her forensic specialty is the best they can do. “Put him down.”

Alex cries out weakly when Luke lifts him onto the table. His head lolls to the side, glistening with sweat. “He's fading,” Luke murmurs.

“The warlock better get here fast,” Jace murmurs, fishing for scissors to cut off Alec's clothes and get at his wound.

It's bad, worse than he feared. Alec's entire left side is a mess of torn flesh, deep claw marks going down his hip and leg. Even if it wasn't poisoned, it would have been more than an iratze could heal. As it is, the only thing they can do is try to slow the bleeding.

The minutes until Clary comes back, still on the phone, and a portal opens right in the middle of the infirmary feel like ages to Jace. He and Izzy share dark looks as they work, alternating between bandaging Alec's wounds and trying to keep him awake. Luke stands awkwardly to the side, arms and chest covered in blood. When Magnus walks through the portal, glittery and magnificent as ever, they take a collective breath of relief.

Magnus hisses when he sees Alex, naked but for his combat shoes that they haven't had time to bother removing, his modesty just barely covered by a sheet arranged to keep his injuries exposed. The compression bandages Jace and Izzy have put on his wounds are already drenched in blood, and Alec is paler than a ghost, mumbling feverishly.

“What happened?” Magnus asks, gently pushing Clary out of the way.

“Shax demons,” Jace answers. “Maybe something else, I don't know. We got separated.” Code for 'Alec stayed behind and I let him'. He swallows back the guilt. It's not useful, right now.

Magnus makes a complicated gesture and blue light seeps into Alec's body, engulfing him. Alec reacts to it, finally relaxing a little. The ache in Jace's side fades slightly. “What are you doing?” he murmurs. He should let Magnus work, but he needs to know what’s happening, needs to know if Alec is going to be okay.

Magnus shifts his stance. “Just taking away the pain for now,” he answers. “So he can lose consciousness without his body fighting back. You have a rune for blood replenishing, don’t you?”

“Yeah,” Jace nods.

“I need to flush out the poison, and it will make him lose a lot of blood. He’s already going into shock, so I need you to draw the rune and keep it powered while I work.” Create new blood faster than Alec is losing it, Jace translates. He can do that. He grabs Alec’s right arm and finds an empty spot to draw the rune.

“I’m all set,” he says, trying to keep his eyes off the bleeding wounds, where Magnus has made the bandages disappear. He feels queasy, weak, and he no longer knows how much of that is coming from the parabatai bond.

Izzy slips beside Jace and grabs Alec's hand, just under the place where Jace is holding his wrist. Jace bumps shoulders with her, trying to convey silent support. Luke pulls Clary into his arms as she starts crying with exhaustion and fear.

Together, entranced by Magnus’ magic swirling around Alec’s body, they wait.

*

Magnus collapses into a chair, exhausted, as his magic fizzles out of existence. He doesn’t know how long it’s been since he started working on Alec’s injuries, but it feels like an eternity. And he knows what he’s talking about.

He resists the itch to conjure a clock, knowing that his magic is all but depleted. It makes his skin crawl, being close to powerless in a Shadowhunter Institute of all places. Why did he let it go so far? He’s not normally this careless.

Because Alexander would not have survived otherwise, his brain supplies. But what is the life of one Shadowhunter? They die all the time. This wouldn’t be the first time one has died on Magnus’ watch. He’s never cared before. He’s made no mystery of the strong pull he feels toward Alec, even to himself, but is he already this important? Healing Luke was one thing. Luke is a Downworlder, one of Magnus’ own, and a useful political ally. Alec is none of those things.

“Magnus?” Clary’s voice pulls him out of his thoughts, and he realizes that the Shadowhunters must have called him more than once. He shakes his head to clear the fog, but it only makes the room swim.

“Shit,” he murmurs, barely catching himself on the arms of the chair.

“You okay?”

“Yes, yes, I’m fine. Just overexerted myself a little.” His throat is dry, and he coughs to clear it, wishing he could conjure himself a glass of water.

“Did you—Is he—” Jace struggles to find the words. Magnus raises his head to look at them, and finds all four of them – Jace, Isabelle, Luke and Clary – staring at him. He looks at the table where Alec still lies, now at eye level from his sitting position, and only now takes in the blood-soaked bandages around Alec’s torso and left leg, and the uncovered gashes still slowly leaking blood.

“He should live,” Magnus says. The others all sigh in relief. Isabelle leans her head against Alec’s in an intimate gesture of support, while Jace drops into a chair like a puppet whose strings have been dropped. “Once I’ve replenished my energy, I’ll be able to help him more, but for now the poison is out of his system. Shax wounds are resistant to magic though, so his body will have to do some of the healing on its own. You’ll need to stitch the larger gashes closed.”

“I’ll take care of it,” Isabelle says. “We can get one of the Clave medics to help if we need to.”

“How long—” Magnus waves a weak hand toward Alec.

“You were working on him for about four hours,” Jace answers.

Ah. That would explain the magic depletion, and the deep fatigue settling in his bones. He lost track of time, too focused on getting every last tendril of poison out of Alec’s body. The table underneath Alec is covered in a disgusting mix of drying blood and ichor, dripping slowly onto the floor.

“Thank you so much for your help, Magnus,” Isabelle appears in his field of vision, and he realizes he’s zoned out again. “You will be compensated, of course. You’ll forgive us if we don’t take care of it tonight? Alec normally handles those things.”

Magnus makes a vague gesture with his head. Payment is the furthest thing from his mind right now – and it really shouldn’t be, but Alec looks pained and cold in his sleep, shivering from the blood loss, and he can’t keep his eyes away.

“Do you want to rest before you leave?” Isabelle asks. She looks exhausted too, they all do. Magnus blinks, trying to process what she just said.

“Uh, can I just—” he waves vaguely toward one of the empty infirmary beds. He’s not sure he’d make it to another room if he tried, and he feels safer here than alone somewhere unknown in the Institute. No one will try to attack him here, not in the presence of the Lightwoods.

Plus, he finds that he doesn’t want to let Alec out of his sight. Not yet. He needs to make sure he didn’t do all this work for nothing, after all.

“We’ll have to make you move if someone comes in injured, but for now you should be good,” Isabelle says.

Magnus leans heavily on the arms of his chair to stand up. The dizziness hits almost immediately, but he rides it out until it abates enough to let him move. Isabelle frowns at him as he makes his way to the bed, hunched over and barely keeping his balance, but she doesn’t say anything.

Magnus hoists himself up on the bed with difficulty and doesn’t even bother kicking off his shoes. He turns on his side immediately to see Alec. Isabelle is laying down the supplies for stitches, while Jace traces runes on the rare blank spots left on Alec’s body that aren’t lacerated.

The two of them remove the bandages one by one to sew up the largest gashes, and Magnus watches them in silence, fighting sleep. He doesn’t even know why he’s resisting anymore. Alec isn’t out of danger by a far cry, but he’s stable for now, so this is his chance.

“Have you told your parents yet?” he asks suddenly. He’d rather know in advance if he runs the risk of Maryse and Robert Lightwood dropping in unannounced. How these people raised a beautiful soul like Alec is beyond him.

“They’re back in Idris for now,” Jace answers. “They’re stuck in Alicante unless he takes a turn for the worse.”

“Let’s hope that doesn’t happen,” Magnus says dryly. The effect is somewhat ruined by the huge yawn that follows.

“I’ve got this handled,” Isabelle tells him, her voice softer than it’s been all day. “You can rest. We’ll stay with him.”

Magnus fights for another few minutes, but he drifts off to sleep despite him, to the sound of Isabelle’s whispered instructions to Jace.

*

Magnus knocks lightly on the door of the infirmary, under the glare of the Shadowhunter who escorted him through the Institute. It’s been just under two days since he was here last. An emergency with one of his younger warlocks pulled him away as soon as he woke up from his magic-depletion-induced sleep, and he hasn’t been able to come back until now.

“Come in!” comes a voice from inside.

Magnus walks in to find Alec sitting up on his hospital bed, one hand curled around a pair of crutches and the other hovering over his injured side. He’s only wearing sweatpants, his rune-covered upper body exposed except for the stark white bandages taped to his side. He’s in a stand-off with Jace, who is gesturing wildly.

“Tell him he shouldn’t be up yet,” Jace immediately pulls Magnus in. “You’re gonna pull your stitches!”

“I’m fine!” Alec protests, though he very much does not look fine. Even sitting up is clearly an effort, and he has beads of sweat forming on his brow.

“Alright, children, that’s enough,” Magnus waves, seeing clear as day that Alec’s body cannot handle more of this. “If I’m going to check on my healing, I need you lying down,” he tells Alec. Then he points at Jace, “And you, shoo!”

Jace’s eyes widen for a second before he opens his mouth to protest. Magnus doesn’t even bother listening, and he crosses the room to reach Alec’s side, slipping an arm behind his back to help him lie back down. Alec doesn’t resist, if only because his body is incapable of it.

It’s the first time they’ve touched since Alec shared his strength with him, and the contact is almost electrical, despite Alec’s state. Magnus can’t stop himself from stroking his thumb lightly against one of his runes, hoping Alec doesn’t notice. This isn’t exactly the best time to flirt.

“Will you let me have a look at your injuries?” he asks when Alec lets out a small sigh, without letting go of his arm.

“Why are you doing this?” Alec asks. “You don’t owe me anything.”

“You let me take your strength before. Allow me to return the favor.”

“You already have,” Alec murmurs. “Izzy said I would have bled out without you. You _exhausted_ your magic for me.”

“Then let me make sure I didn’t work for nothing.” Magnus can’t resist a wink, and Alec blushes just a little, despite the fact that his eyes are half closed with fatigue. “I still want a date with you, and it wouldn’t do for you to die before we can plan it.”

Alec just blushes further and doesn’t say anything, like he’s exhausted his capacity to talk. It wouldn’t surprise Magnus, given how pale he looks.

Magnus gently prods at his side with magic. The wounds are, in fact, healing rather well with the help of Isabelle’s stitches and healing runes. Magnus doesn’t have Catarina’s knack for delicate mending magic, but he nudges the raw edges of the gashes together, trying to accelerate the body’s natural process. It should cut Alec’s recovery short by a few days, at least. With his Nephilim blood, he’ll be fully back on his feet within a week.

By the time he’s done, Alec has closed his eyes and he’s breathing slowly and deeply, his body almost relaxed. Assuming that he’s fallen asleep, Magnus drapes the sheets back over his legs and gently tucks them around his chest. But before he can leave, Alec’s hand catches his wrist.

“Hey, Magnus?”

Magnus looks back at his face and finds him staring intently at Magnus’ shoulder. “You’re all set, but you should wait a couple days before you try to get out of bed again,” he says.

Alec nods. “Thank you,” he whispers.

Magnus smiles. “You’re very welcome, Alexander.” He squeezes Alec’s hand around his wrist, briefly, and takes a step back. “Call me, for those drinks.”

Alec laughs weakly, and the sound stays with Magnus for a good while.

**Author's Note:**

> Comments and kudos make my day! I'd love to hear your thoughts. I'm also on [Tumblr](https://echo-bleu.tumblr.com/) and apparently now on [twitter](https://twitter.com/echobleuet) if you want to chat.


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